


To lose a loved one is to lose a part of yourself

by sarcastic_fi



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Noncanonical Character Death, maybe if you squint pre-slash?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-04
Updated: 2012-08-04
Packaged: 2017-11-11 10:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/477402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcastic_fi/pseuds/sarcastic_fi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Stiles' dad dies, he stops talking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To lose a loved one is to lose a part of yourself

When Mr Stilinski dies Stiles stops talking. Not just to his friends, to everyone. The doctor says it's post-traumatic stress and that his vocal chords are undamaged. Stiles hears but he doesn't listen, because maybe his voice isn't damaged but he is, deep down inside. Orphan. Alone. Responsible. He may as well have killed his dad with his own two hands, and nothing that Scott or Lydia says is going to change the fact that Stiles brought this ruin down on his family. He killed his mom, and now he's killed his dad.

The school makes him visit Ms. Morell once a week, but when there is no progress they cut it down to once a month. Stiles refuses to communicate with her through any medium but despite this she refuses to give up. “One day you're going to want to cry it all out, to ask why and shout out that you hate the world for taking away the people you love. I'm gonna be here until that day, and then I'm going to show you that there is life after this and that you deserve it just like everyone else.”

He doesn't believe her.

He doesn't believe in her. In anything, not any more.

The only good thing to come out of all the mess is that Mr Harris finally stops tormenting him. Apparently giving a seventeen year old mute orphan detention for the entire school year is frowned upon enough to make the biggest jerk on campus second think it. Who knew.

It's been two months when someone gets around to approaching the fact that he's still almost a year away from being old enough to live on his own. With both parents dead and no other family to speak of they tell him that foster care is probably the next step. His house will remain vacant until he is old enough to inherit it but they cannot allow him to stay there alone in the mean time. 

Melissa McCall contacts child services and begs them to let her take him in. She's a good person. Unfortunately good people don't always translate well on paper and when the social worker looks into Scott's criminal activities (which also happen to be Stiles' criminal activities) and takes into account how much Melissa works and how little she makes on a nurses salary they turn her down with big fat red letters telling her she is 'unsuitable'. Bull****, but they have their paperwork to back them up and no amount of begging or pleading from Melissa, Scott or Stiles changes their minds.

There is no one else who Stiles could ask to go to bat for him. But someone does anyway.

Derek Hale, high school drop out with 'person of interest' stamped across his police records is apparently a better guardian for Stiles than Melissa McCall. Somehow Stiles suspects that Derek may have used his powers of intimidation and wolfiness to get that motion passed but it does pass and all without Stiles' knowledge. One day Derek shows up at the end of school with Isaac – who is also under his guardianship, Erica – who still lives with her bemused human parents, and Boyd – who spends a lot of time at Derek's despite having a family waiting for him. They all pile in his car, the three packmates squished uncomfortably in the back until Erica nominates Isaac to sit on Boyd's lap much to her own amusement. They do as she says though because she's the most dominant of all of them, something to do with her female ability to endure more pain and kick more ass than them. Either that or she's just scarier. 

Stiles doesn't understand what's happening until after Derek has dropped his werecubs home, leaving Isaac with Erica to *cough cough* 'study' for a test. They finally end up at Stiles' own house, to which Derek has a key.

He lets them both in and shows him his old room which is exactly as he left it. Well, it might be a little tidier but who puts their clothes in the laundry bin when they're grieving? Derek then proceeds to find his prescription and check the date it needs refilling, noting it down on a surprisingly homey family calender under the 'Derek' section and add in the dates of Stiles' continuing counselling sessions in a column headed with his own name and then he sees a section marked off for Isaac with dates for parents meeting and end of school term. 

That's when he figures it out.

“Yeah,” Derek says, apparently a mind reader. “I know it's not ideal but I'm kind of all you have right now. And I owe you,” he adds quietly.

For what? Stiles wants to ask, but he guesses it's for all the times he saved the sourwolf's life or helped in some way to keep his pack safe and strong from all kinds of threats; kanimas, hunters, Gerard, their own stupidity... 

“You're safe now, Stiles. I'm gonna take care of everything,” Derek reassures him, patting him awkwardly on the shoulder.

Stiles feels tears well up in his eyes.

Derek slowly, like he might scare him, brings him closer for a hug and then, only then, does Stiles allow himself to cry. For the first time since his dad died he makes a sound, and while his voice is rusty and choked with emotion he's pretty sure that Derek understood the word.

It was 'thanks'.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry about this - written because I am ill and I am sad (two unconnected things)


End file.
